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Our 2023 summer term will commence on Wednesday 26 April 2023 and, after a half term on 31 May, will finish with our traditional end of term summer concert and party on Saturday 24 June 2023.

This term we will be rehearsing and performing Johannes Brahms Liebeslieder Waltzes (Op 52), a captivating selection of love songs written in a popular folk dance style: a link is provided here for those who would like to hear more in advance.

The first two weeks’ rehearsals will be taster sessions for those who would like to try out so, if you have friends and family who would like to have a go at choral singing, please ask them to come along. And, if you have friends in the choir who have not been attending recently, please encourage them to re-join too.

How to register

If you are on our mailing list you should already have received an email with an invitation to register for the term – if you cannot find it please check your spam folder.

If you are not on our mailing list and would like to sing with us, please contact us via this website.

How to get music

We will be providing music for this term so there will be no need for you to source the music yourself. To cover the costs of production, we are suggesting that singers contribute £10 towards the costs of production.

Rehearsal Schedule

Please follow this link to access our rehearsal schedule for the term.

Subscriptions

The subscription for the term, which will comprise eight rehearsals, is £50 (of which the tuition element will be £16) plus a £10 contribution for this term’s music.  There will be an additional charge of £10 for those who wish to attend our traditional summer party after the concert on 24 June. The overall cost for the term including the party, is £70.  A request for payment will be sent to all participants after the first two weeks of try-out rehearsals is complete.

Suggested recordings

YouTube has a performance which Simon likes by the RIAS Kammerchor – but each song is a separate video so it is easiest to google it.

The Monteverdi singers version (John Eliot Gardiner) is very clear and lyrical – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hb5DgWCGrTs

There is also a very fine version with four wonderful soloists –Edith Mathis, Brigitte Fassbaender, Peter Schreier, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVJy71fY8xY).

All three albums are also available on Spotify

Learning aids

The following sites have learning aids for the waltzes.  Everyone has their own favourite so you should try out a range to see which ones you like.

  • Cyberbass – the waltz aids are not easily found from the home page, but are available via this link.  This provides synthesised voice parts with others in the background and allows you to select short extracts if you need to concentrate on bits you find hard.
  • John F’s Rehearsal Files – John Fletcher has an extraordinary range of music on his site, with individual files for each voice part or for all parts together. You need to set up a membership – this is free for out of copyright music, such as these waltzes.  There is a paid for option if you want to access copyrighted music – there are various options, but the individual rate for one year is £10.  The advantage of John Fletcher’s site is that you can download the recordings to use offline.
  • Choralia – this is a free site with a wide range of music, including the waltzes – http://www.choralia.net/br04mp3/br04mp3en.htm
  • Saffron Choral Prompt – you can order CDs at a modest price from co.uk01799 586269.  You tell them the name of our choir (for a discount); which piece of music and name of publisher; your voice part.  You will receive a useful (though not beautiful) recording of a voice singing your exact line with a piano accompaniment playing the other parts.  This is clearly most useful for large scale works.

Warm up exercises

All our rehearsals start with warm-up vocal exercises.  Simon has prepared videos to help those who are less familiar with the exercises:

Simon’s regular warm up exercises

If you want to keep your voice going between rehearsals, these are the tools to use.

COVID precautions

Although the risk of serious infection is much diminished as the weather improves, we will be continuing with a Zoom alternative for those who are unable to attend individual rehearsals and we will be continuing with some basic precautions against infection.